Total pages in book: 41
Estimated words: 37824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 37824 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 189(@200wpm)___ 151(@250wpm)___ 126(@300wpm)
What that was, I wasn’t sure. I just know I didn’t care for what I was sure was disinterest, but now his eyes are lingering. Perhaps it's because he's no longer concerned about my safety. Damn, Ace really is some avenging angel.
“I’m covered,” I tell him after I pull the shirt back down.
“Sorry,” he mutters.
“How about you stop saying sorry too, because you have nothing to be sorry for when it comes to me.” He shakes his head, giving the impression that he doesn't believe me. Again, no clue what to do with that. Normally I’m pretty good at reading men’s moods, but Ace has thrown me for a loop.
“Going to touch you now.”
“You can touch me, Ace,” I reassure him. I hate how I always tense up. He’s going to start to think I hate his touches. When, in fact, it’s the opposite. Once my body knows it’s him, I actually feel safer than I ever have before.
His hand wraps around my ankle. “I’ll get you some thick socks in a minute.” Ace’s thumb strokes my ankle before his hand starts to slide up my calf. It sends a shiver through my body. A good one that I can’t even explain. “Tell me if anything hurts.”
Yeah, hurt is not what I’m experiencing right now. He has no idea how intimate this is to me. Not that I want him to stop. It’s just new and exciting. Men aren’t supposed to touch. Not unless they are your husband. I never imagined a man's touch would be something I wanted more of.
Thoughts of Ace being my husband flit through my mind, making me gasp. His hand pauses. “Did that hurt?”
“No, it feels good.”
“How about this?” His fingers sink in deeper, and he starts to rub.
“Oh gosh.” I moan. “That feels good.” My head drops back.
“Don’t move.” Ace bolts up from the bed. I want to grab him and pull him back, but he’s freaking quick. He enters the bathroom, but he’s back a second later with a bottle in his hand. “Lotion.” He sits back down. “A massage might do it some good.” I just nod because that sounds wonderful. “Are you tender here?” His fingers trace the prickled skin where my scar is.
“No, not really. I occasionally experience a sharp pain there, but I'm uncertain if it's real or in my head.”
“We’ll have a doctor decide that. There could be a nerve acting up.”
“A nerve?”
“You make me want to go back there and beat the shit out of all of them.”
“Over a nerve?”
“No.” He shakes his head, but a half smile tugs at one side of his mouth. “That they didn’t teach you girls the basics.” Ace starts to rub, all the while going on to tell me what he means. Things about the human body that I should know. It’s all so fascinating.
My eyes start to grow heavy as Ace works his fingers into my muscles. His words are soothing, almost like a lullaby, until sleep draws me in.
7
ACE
Iwatch her sleep peacefully. I want to feed her, but I know that sleep is often the best medicine. I'm sure her mind is exhausted from everything she saw. Oftentimes people don't realize the mental load they are carrying until it catches up to them. Once it does, then they crash.
Her blonde hair is spread out across my pillow. Fuck me, she’s really here. I thought I would never find her, but fate had other plans. I only wish I’d found her sooner. She’s been living in hell. Thankfully my girl is strong. You have to be to survive what she did.
It’s hard to look at her and not become enraged. Her lip is swollen, but the cut isn’t as red and irritated. I keep rubbing her leg, knowing I should let go, but I can’t bring myself to do it. It’s irrational, but I have this fear that if I let her too far from my reach, she’ll up and disappear on me again.
Still, I need to be mindful not to come off as too overbearing. That might spook her, and I’m sure she’s lived with enough overbearing men in her life.
I force myself to remove my hands from her soft skin. I grab the throw blanket from the end of my bed and cover her before forcing myself to get out of bed. I go to my safe room and take some of the rest of my gear off, keeping a few items on me.
I know I’m being overly cautious. If there had been someone following us, Short would have noticed. He trailed us the whole way back. Before I put the drone away, I made sure it loaded all the data it collected from Heaven's Temple onto my computer.
Make no mistake about it: Heaven’s Temple is going to have to be handled one way or another. Now that we have two of the girls out of there, we can see about calling in more higher-ups. I just worry about some Waco shit happening. That raid was a shitshow, but technically, it is different now. I think an ops mission would be better. Libby cares about some of the people still there. I could see it when she talked about them and said they weren’t all bad.